Joke's on Romney in late-night poll

His front-runner status may be in danger, but one thing is clear: Mitt Romney is still winning late night.

HighBeam Research, a firm that tracks television mentions, crunched the numbers for POLITICO to tally how often the GOP candidates have been cited on the late-night laugh circuit and found the former Massachusetts governor is still ahead of his competitors. That includes fast-rising Newt Gingrich, who has yet to see his remarkable boost in the polls translate into making him the butt of more comic barbs in the wee hours. But that might be just around the corner…

“Winning” in late night, of course, is a double-edged sword: While the mentions might increase exposure, they usually come at a high cost of mockery. On Tuesday, Romney fell into Jimmy Fallon’s sights.

“Several journalists are reporting that, when it comes to dealing with the staff, Mitt Romney’s staff is ‘defensive and difficult.’ In response, Romney’s staff issued a statement saying, ‘ You’re defensive and you’re difficult.’”

For Huntsman, who has found it difficult to gain traction, his late-night fate closely mirrors what’s happened to him on the campaign trail: a struggle to get attention. Even Tim Pawlenty, who dropped out of the race in August, bested Huntsman with 4.90 percent of all mentions.

The late-night shows monitored by HighBeam for its research were Jay Leno, David Letterman, Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Fallon, Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert and “Saturday Night Live.”

Considering how fluid the Republican field has been over the past year, with various candidates taking their turn at the top of the polls, it’s no surprise to discover that Romney has seen his top position with late-night mentions take a hit of late, especially as allegations of sexual impropriety against Herman Cain knocked the former Godfather’s Pizza CEO out of the race and as former House Speaker Gingrich surged to front-runner status.

From Nov. 1 through Dec. 6, the results were:

Herman Cain: 32.70%

Rick Perry: 27.74%

Mitt Romney: 25.27%

While Perry clearly earned more jokes at his own expense, thanks to his mega-gaffe at the Nov. 9 debate when he couldn’t remember the third federal agency he wanted to dismantle, Gingrich has not seen his jump in the polls spur a surge in late-night jokes: Over the past month, he remains well behind Romney, with just 14.29 percent of the mentions.